Washington Lawyer - May/June 2024 - 31

FEATURE
POWERED BY AI
Case Briefs at Your Fingertips
By Jeremy Conrad
" It's really not as easy as you would think, " says George Washington
University Law School student Bradley Neal of using artificial intelligence
(AI) in creating new tools for the legal profession.
Neal, a 3L with a background in software engineering, found the time
between classes to develop several tech tools for law students, legal professionals,
and even the general public. This past spring he joined legal
research titans LexisNexis and Westlaw to launch the AI-assisted research
tool Lexplug, a library of case summaries intended for use by law students.
It is Neal's first commercial venture in the legal tech space.
Released in January, Lexplug has an initial data set of 5,000 cases. " That
was a huge problem to solve, figuring out which cases to include, " Neal
says, " but we identified a set of 5,000 cases that we thought were most
relevant to legal study, and we created summaries of them using AI. "
Neal culled the initial data set from publicly available syllabi and course
materials from law schools across the country. He then wrote a program
that automatically extracted text from the PDFs of course materials
and searched them for case titles. Afterward, Neal ran the resulting list of
potential cases through another program that checked the case names
against open-source resources like Google Scholar.
Neal acknowledges the problem with AI hallucinations - inaccurate,
misleading, and sometimes fabricated results generated by large language
models - so Lexplug uses AI driven by what he calls targeted or
primary context reinforcement. " It is really important that the summaries
Lexplug produces are both clear and accurate. Context reinforcement is
how we get there, " Neal says.
In addition to case summaries, Lexplug includes features designed specifically
for use by law students. Gunnerbot - from the law school trope
" gunner, " the student poised to provide the first response to any question
posed by the professor - allows the user to quickly retrieve relevant
facts and information from case text, if available, through a simple chat
interface. For example, Gunnerbot could quickly tell the user the name
of the town where the plaintiffs in Loving v. Virginia were married, or the
attorney of record for the state of Virginia.
" The results will either tell you the information that you are asking for or,
if it isn't present, simply tell you the answer isn't in the case text, both of
which are preferable to making something up, " Neal says.
Another feature, ELI5 Mode (short for " explain it like I'm 5 " ), converts formal
case summary text into easily accessible plain language that avoids
terms of art. For instance, Lexplug's AI-drafted summary of the rule of law
in the case of Pierson v. Post reads: " Property in wild animals (ferae naturae)
is acquired by occupancy, which requires actual possession, not merely
pursuit or wounding. " The ELI5 version offers this summary: " To own a
wild animal, you need to actually catch it, not just chase it. "
These features can be a game changer for students. " There are other
companies providing summaries for cases, but sometimes when you're
late for class you just need some clarity, " Neal says. " I want to know what
we're talking about quickly. It can be helpful to have things translated
out of legalese. AI lets us do cool things like that. "
Neal continues to test his systems in this closed environment to ensure
that the results provided are accurate, hallucination-free, and useful. Lexplug's
newest feature, which Neal affectionately calls " on-the-fly generation, "
allows users to request any case by reporter number. When a new
reporter number is submitted, the system will ingest the materials, create
the briefs (both standard and simplified), and produce answers to queries
within about 90 seconds. Neal is also interested in adding statutes,
regulations, and other legal documents to the system over the coming
months.
Law student Bradley Neal wants to make legal knowledge
more accessible using AI tools.
Lexplug is just the
latest in a string of
projects Neal has
embarked on to
make legal knowledge
more accessible
and interactive
with the aid
of technology.
Last year, Neal
launched the podcast
The Supreme
Court: Oral Arguments,
which uses
an algorithm to
fetch the audio
recordings of the
High Court's oral
arguments from
its website and republish
them on a
variety of podcasting
platforms. This
allows users to access
the files more easily and listen to them on more sophisticated media
players than the ones previously available. The podcast is free and has
developed a significant listenership.
Neal has also created Channel 42, a temporary authentication-free voice
chat application designed for use on Reddit, as well as Counsel Companion,
a Chrome extension that turns a fact scenario into search terms for
use on a legal research site.
These earlier projects have been free to use, so Lexplug represents Neal's
first entry into the paid services space. " The law is open source, so we're
just layering products and services on top of that open-source layer, " he
says. " We're starting with law students, but we already have a prototype
that does briefs for practicing lawyers, and we're convinced we can bring
a lot of value there, especially relative to what exists on the market from
some of the larger companies. "
Lexplug (lexplug.com) is a subscription service that charges $9 a month,
with a seven-day free trial. Neal finishes his law degree in May and will sit
for the D.C. bar exam in July.
Reach D.C. Bar staff writer Jeremy Conrad at jconrad@dcbar.org.
MAY/JUNE 2024 * WASHINGTON LAWYER 31
Courtesy of Bradley Neal
http://www.lexplug.com
Washington Lawyer - May/June 2024

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